Chapter Text
The alarm rings in the middle of Bobby’s famous lasagna, followed by a chorus of groans and chairs scraping against the floor.
Eddie’s the first in the engine, Ravi quickly following suit and choosing the seat next to him. It's been an otherwise quiet day, though Eddie wouldn't say that aloud. Not that he believes in jinxes, or curses, or whatever his team wants to call it. He simply doesn't want to cause unnecessary strife, obviously.
The 118 is instructed to go to the Planet Ocean Aquarium, a building Eddie's never actually been to before. He's promised Christopher a trip since they moved to L.A., and there's a twinge of guilt in his gut that he never followed through on that.
“This place gives me bad vibes,” Ravi says from beside him as they pull into the parking lot, a gaggle of over-eager kids pointing at the truck. Eddie waves at them and smiles when they wave back, followed by a chorus of mute giggles.
“Why?” Eddie asks, half distracted by the large expanse of building, glass walls showcasing eliminated displays of various kinds of sea creatures.
“You haven't heard?” Hen pipes up from the front, half-turning to face the two of them. “There was a huge lawsuit last year. A bunch of activists chained themselves to the doors.”
“This place doesn't have the best reputation,” Ravi mutters as they park. Eddie nods. He wants to ask more questions, but he doesn't get the chance. Not before they're whisked inside by a security guard, who leads them to a darkened room with carpeted seating. The only light is a large tank, though Eddie can't see anything inside.
It's dirty though, and Eddie starts to understand what those activists were on about. If this is the state of every enclosure, surely that's a problem.
“Right this way,” the security guard says needlessly. There's a small group of people crowding around a child laying on the ground, face red with hives and wet with tears.
“Hey, kiddo,” Eddie says, leaning down. He inspects the open bag of peanuts beside him while Hen readies the epipen. “You allergic?”
The little boy nods helplessly, breaths labored until the needle is injected into his thigh. Eddie lays a reassuring hand on his shoulder and squeezes. “Where are your parents, bud?”
“With the penguins,” he says. “I was looking at the mermaid.”
“The…” Eddie furrows his brows and looks back at the tank, but he still sees nothing. He looks back at the child and nods, allowing Hen and Chim to take charge and get him to the ambulance.
“There's no way, right?” Ravi asks from behind, once the crowd has separated and they run no risk of being overheard. “I mean, that's inhumane as fuck. And it looks empty.”
Eddie swallows the growing lump in his throat and steps forward. “Look,” he whispers, as if it's a secret.
Ravi finds it at the same time as Eddie, because his breath catches. The tail-end of a fin poking out from behind a rock, flakes of gold and fiery orange visible even in the dim light.
“Holy shit,” Ravi says.
And then they poke their head out, and Eddie makes eye contact with the most beautiful thing he's ever laid eyes on.
Their hair is curly, cut down to their ears messily as if done in haste. Their chest is bare, save for the shimmer of scales along their torso.
“Holy shit,” Eddie echoes. The mermaid flinches back as soon as they realize they're not alone, then hides behind the rock once more. Eddie frowns and looks at Ravi, who's still staring at the empty space they occupied just seconds before.
“There's no way that's…”
“It's disgusting in there.” An edge to Eddie's voice that makes Ravi finally look at him. “Disgusting and tiny.”
“Did you see it's–her–face?” Ravi asks. “She looked terrified.”
Eddie nods once, then steps back. “We’re not helping,” he says hastily. “We need to leave.”
“We can't just…” Ravi looks at Eddie helplessly, then back at the tank with its filmy water and artificial plants.
“We have to.” Eddie’s heart is a knife that's twisting. “Come on.”
They say nothing on the walk outside, somber quiet taking hold of the two of them. Eddie finds himself in a low mood the rest of the shift, thankful for the lack of calls. He tries to distract himself by cleaning the rig, checking the oil on the ambulance, and organizing the kitchen cabinets, but his mind never strays from that mermaid. Not completely, at least.
“You down for a game of Uno?” Hen asks from the kitchen table. Eddie drops the washcloth he’s holding and nods, sliding into the seat in front of her and Chim.
It’s easier to forget in the company of friends.
***
His throat is raw from screaming, eyes squeezed shut and hands balled up into fists. Fingernails digging into palms, creating half-moon indents that break skin. It feels like being electrocuted, over and over and over again, each crack of the whip against his back sending shockwaves of agony through his entire body. They get bored eventually, move onto his tail, his arms, fistfuls of hair in their hands. Roughly grabbing his waist, his fins, his neck so that he can't breathe, grabbing onto his breasts as they whisper lewdly in his ear. Oh god, let it end. Let me die. Just let me die, please, just let me-
***
Eddie wakes with a start, early sunlight blinding him the second his eyes open. He dreamt of them. They've consumed his thoughts since yesterday, since their bright blue eyes locked on his own. Eyes full of apprehension, first, then full-on panic as they scrambled to hide again. Ravi had called them she, but Eddie's not so sure. How selfish would it be, after all, to apply human gender norms to a species that lives miles away from any of them, so separate from society?
He grabs his phone from where it's charging on his nightstand. He searches the aquarium on google, and scrolls past the reviews and pictures, to find what he's looking for.
He does find it, on the second page of the search.
Dozens of articles that make his head spin, accusations of abuse, unsafe conditions for both the animals and the employees, lawsuits, activists chaining themselves to doors. He finds a petition from two years ago to get the place shut down, but it didn't get nearly enough signatures. He wonders idly if it's too late to sign it.
And then he finds something else. Kidnapping, or merely fishing? A summary of the current controversy surrounding Planet Ocean and its mermaid problem.
Eddie’s thoughts are elsewhere as he reads, teeth biting the inside of his cheek.
The way their eyes locked on Eddie’s, the way they flinched away as if burned. Eddie's heart pounds as he puts his phone down and gets out of bed, walking in a half daze to Christopher’s room. He knocks before entering, opening the door a crack to peer in.
Chris is awake, watching something on the computer at his desk. He pauses the video and turns to face Eddie.
“Remember when I promised to take you to the aquarium?” Eddie asks. “How do you feel about going today?”
Chris nods, a smile blossoming on his face. Eddie leaves to get ready, unsure what the hell he's even doing.
What's his plan, other than seeing them again? Storming in the building and demanding they set them loose? This terrified, captive creature, who hides at the first sight of people?
Eddie has no idea. Just that he needs to see them again, needs to think of something he can do. He’s not fond of feeling useless, and it grates against him as he makes breakfast for Christopher. Flipping scrambled eggs on the stove while he tries to imagine what it would be like locked in a cage, forced to put on a show for others’ entertainment. It sounds like torture. It sounds like Hell.
It's slow today, so the line to get in is short. $40 later, Eddie follows Chris inside with a hand on his shoulder. Chris beelines for the stingrays and Eddie forces himself to be patient, to let Christopher look around and point out the informative placards beside each enclosure.
He follows Christopher through a tunnel where the sharks are, that opens to a room with a large sign and a closed door. Mercreatures this way, it says, and Eddie wonders with a twist in his gut if there’s more than one.
Christopher hesitates at the door, then turns back to Eddie with a silent frown.
“You okay, buddy?”
“I've never seen one. It feels wrong to keep them here.”
Eddie hums in agreement, steeling himself as Chris opens the door to the viewing room.
Inside, a few little kids have pressed themselves against the tank while the parents sit against the steps and half-heartedly watch, lost in silent chatter. Christopher warily goes to join the gaggle of pre-schoolers, but stops in his tracks halfway.
Eddie doesn't understand, not at first. And then he can't help the quiet gasp that escapes his mouth.
They're in there, all right. And not hiding anymore. Instead, they're laying on the bottom of the tank, either asleep or unconscious or… dead, stomach pressed against the hard ground. Their back is a constellation of bloodied lashings, the water around them a hazy red. Through the murky water, Eddie can see the bunches of bruises around their wrist, another on their neck, next to the faint outline of gills. Eddie’s medical training urges him forward, searching for even the tiniest sign of life.
There's nothing. Nothing.
“Dad,” Christopher says, breathless.
“I know,” Eddie whispers, eyes locked on the blood. “Jesus.”
The merperson moves, just a little at first. Then their eyes flutter open, the iridescent tail twitching in apparent discomfort. It's the second time the two of them make eye contact, and Eddie starts to understand what the old legends say about sirens. Their eyes are beautiful. Horribly sad, but beautiful. Coupled with the birthmark that lays against their eyebrow, and the rainbow circlet that twists around their forearm.
It's enough to make Eddie believe in God, because surely this creature is a divine creation.
He doesn't think before he's pulling out his phone. He doesn't take his eyes away from them though, not as they recoil back at the intrusion of multiple people watching them, swimming into the farthest corner and staying there. Eddie pulls up Ravi's contact information, and sends a text.
Eddie: How do you feel about a prison break?
Ravi: i've been waiting for you to say that dude
Ravi: fuck yes.
Eddie stares at the messages for a second, then looks back up at the terrified form in front of him. “Okay,” he says aloud. “Chris, let's get out of here.”
“Where are we going?” Christopher asks, none too eager to leave the room with the gawking children and the frightened eyes.
“Home,” Eddie says, and then, “I just picked up a shift.”
***
“Absolutely not.”
It's unsurprising, but still irritating, the way Bobby folds his arms across his chest and shakes his head as if he's scolding a bunch of children. Eddie and Ravi exchange glances. From the side, Chim and Hen seem to be lost in thought.
“Cap, you didn't see it.” Eddie winces in remembrance. “They were hurt. Those fucking monsters are hurting them.”
Bobby, to his credit, goes silent. At his side, Ravi is fidgeting uncomfortably, before he pipes up, seemingly reluctant to draw the attention to himself. “I have an idea.”
Eddie whirls on him. “What is it?”
“Trust me,” he says, then looks over at Bobby. At Hen and Chim, whose attention is now unequivocally on them.
And Eddie knows, with a sigh and a nod, that he doesn’t have a choice.
Ravi pulls out his phone and begins to type furiously, then steps away just a few seconds later when his phone rings. Eddie doesn’t hear the conversation, turning back towards an unconvinced Bobby.
“That’s what the job is all about, right? Helping people?” When Bobby says nothing, Eddie takes it upon himself to continue. “They need medical attention, at the very least. Those wounds could get infected.”
“I’ll bring a med kit,” Hen says, and Eddie flashes her a grateful look. His heart swells with love for his team, even Bobby, whose cracking facial expressions tell Eddie that he’s getting through to him.
“Please, Cap.” Eddie steps closer to him. “We have to try.”
Bobby takes a deep breath, and then nods. “You know I’m with you, Eddie.”
Eddie smiles.
***
The aquarium is dark at night, the only light coming from the illuminated enclosures against the walls. Eddie hasn’t asked Ravi how the hell he managed to secure a key to the building, how the hell he knows the code to the security alarm, but he offers an explanation anyway.
“One of my tenants works here,” he supplies at Eddie’s confused look. “Gave her a month off rent for this.”
To the side, Hen balks out a laugh. “Seriously? That’s a good deal, actually.”
Ravi just shrugs. “She made me promise not to get her fired. Hopefully I can keep it.”
Their cover story is easy, but flimsy. All five of them; Eddie, Ravi, Chim, Hen, and a begrudging Bobby are in uniform, turnouts and helmets and all. It doesn’t matter that they’re off duty. If anyone asks, the plan is to say they were alerted of an alarm going off. Eddie isn’t confident it will work, but he’s hoping the presence of his captain allows for more leeway.
It’s not long before they’re stopped. The man before them is big, muscular, with a seemingly permanent scowl and a struggling hairline. He shines his flashlight on them, unimpressed, then folds his arms. “The hell are you guys doing here?”
The excuses die on Eddie’s lips. This is a stupid thing they’re doing, isn’t it? Extremely unlike him. What is he doing, trying to play hero, trying to-
“Captain Bobby Nash, 118,” Bobby says, extending a friendly hand to the guard. The guard warily shakes it. “We got a call from dispatch about an alarm.”
“Nobody told me about that, and I didn’t hear anything,” the man says, unconvinced, until Bobby opens his coat enough to show his badge. Then he sighs, motioning vaguely with his hand to let them through. Eddie releases a breath, the tension falling from his shoulders as they walk past the hard man and his hard face, wondering if the bruises on his knuckles have anything to do with the state of the merperson they’ve imprisoned.
“Lead the way,” Bobby says. Eddie flashes him a grateful look, then nods. Even if he’s only been here twice, he knows the way by heart. Through the tunnel of sharks, past a doorway that, thank god, remains unlocked after hours, and into the darkened room.
Eddie doesn’t see them. The tank seems empty. From the corner of his eye, he sees Bobby approach it hesitantly, as if whatever’s inside will jump out and frighten him at any second.
“I don’t see anything,” Chim says. “You sure this is it?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Eddie says impatiently. “Don’t you remember?”
“Look.” Ravi, pointing to the top right corner of the tank, where the merperson stares warily down at them. Eddie’s breath catches as he searches for more signs of injury. Their arms are folded over their chest, rainbow circlet glinting faintly in the glow of the tank. They don’t look afraid, not necessarily, but weary, placing as much distance between them and the 118 as possible.
“Holy shit,” Chimney says. “I gotta tell Maddie.”
“Why Maddie?” Hen asks from beside him.
“She didn’t believe me when I told her,” he answers. “Didn’t think anybody would be this evil.”
Eddie tunes them out, though he’s certain they keep talking long after he’s walked away. He finds an employee-only entrance and tries the handle, but it doesn’t budge. He steels himself, then kicks the door in with all his might. He sees the merperson flinch, frozen in place, watching him nervously.
“Jesus, Eddie,” Bobby exclaims. Eddie hesitates a moment, ears strained to listen to any sign of alarm. He hears none, and takes it as an opportunity to walk inside.
It seems that this is how they feed them, how they get in and out of the tank. Eddie walks up a narrow set of stairs that leads to a catwalk, which overlooks the water below.
And he sees them, closer now, a head of curly, dirty blonde hair and toned arms, a tail swaying lightly to keep them afloat. They look up then, recoil once they realize how close Eddie is. Eddie’s not sure what to do now that he’s gotten this far. They have no reason to trust him, if the slashes on their back and shoulders are anything to go by. Eddie raises his hands in surrender, kneeling down by the pool of water and schooling his face into a neutral expression.
“I’m trying to help you,” he says, though he has no idea if they can even hear him through the water. He feels helpless, staring them down as they back fearfully away from him, and he realizes he has absolutely no plan beyond getting inside the aquarium to begin with.
Footsteps alert him of someone else’s presence, but he relaxes when he sees Bobby. Bobby kneels down beside him, choking down a gasp that lets Eddie know Bobby sees exactly what he does. Bloodied marks on their back, bruises on their arms.
“Christ,” Bobby hisses, as if he’s feeling the pain himself. Eddie nods in agreement.
“What do we do, Cap?” he asks helplessly. Their gaze is going back and forth; from Eddie and Bobby above, to the rest of the crew down below.
And then Bobby does something wholly unexpected: he removes his turnout, his shoes, his helmet. And he dives into the water.
Eddie stares after him, slack-jawed. The merperson startles and backs away against the wall, flinching once their injured back makes contact with the hard surface. Bobby doesn’t approach, just holds his hand out to try to show he’s not a threat. He points up at Eddie, trying to communicate without words, it seems. Eddie watches as Bobby motions them to go with him, and it is perhaps fear that makes them docile, because they follow Bobby, however reluctantly, to the top of the tank.
Bobby takes a breath once he’s reached the surface. Eddie reaches a hand down to help pull him up. “Wasn’t expecting that, honestly,” he says.
“What can I say, full of surprises,” Bobby says, hoisting himself out of the tank and back onto the catwalk.
Eddie turns his attention to the terrified person still in the water, hoping his voice is gentle enough when he speaks. “Hey, my name’s Eddie. This is Bobby,” he says. “We’re here to help you.”
“Why would I trust you?”
Eddie cannot hide his shock when they speak. He hadn’t even been sure they could understand what he was saying, let alone that they spoke the same language. Eddie thinks for a minute, then points at his own turnout.
“I’m a firefighter,” he begins. “I know that… doesn’t mean much to you. But it’s my job to help people. And you’re hurt.”
They snort, roll their eyes, and Eddie cringes at himself.
“Eddie, how are we even going to do this?” Bobby, looking worried, glancing between him and the merperson. “It’s not like we have a tank on the rig.”
“We carry them back to the ocean,” Eddie says. He glances at the heavy door behind them, the one he assumes overlooks the Pacific. He averts his gaze to find a cart in the corner, holding various kinds of food and cleaning products. He points to it. “That could help.”
Eddie looks back down at them, their face unmasked with sudden hope. “You’ll take me home?” they ask. “You… you’d let me go?”
Eddie eyes Bobby, who nods. “‘Course we would. Why wouldn’t we?”
It seems they don’t have an answer, but they do reach their hand up for one of them to grab. Eddie takes it, pretending that their skin isn’t the softest thing he’s ever touched, that their eyes aren’t the most beautiful things he’s ever seen.
They’re heavy, but that’s not unexpected. They use their other hand to grab onto the catwalk and pull themself out, breathing heavily from what Eddie can only imagine is excruciating pain in their back.
Eddie can’t look away, not as the water drips down their body and onto the ground beside them, their curls sticking to their forehead as their lips twist into a grimace. He notices, up close, that the birthmark above their eyebrow matches their lips. That in certain lighting, their cheeks turn the same iridescent gold as their tail. His eyes fall to the circlet on their forearm, its colors somehow brighter against the darkened room.
“This is really beautiful,” he says, and reaches a hand forward to tap it. They flinch, and Eddie retracts his hand immediately, but not before it happens.
They start to change.
It’s subtle at first. Eddie doesn’t even notice it, too transfixed by the curve of a jaw, the tilt of the head, the slant of the nose. He doesn’t notice until beside him, Bobby gasps, and before he has time to ask him what’s wrong, he finds his answer.
Their injured fin disappears first, taking a bloody, almost certainly infected scab with it. A golden tail starts to melt away into nothing, and the merperson is staring at it, horrified fascination on their face.
“What the fuck.” A whisper, coming from behind him. It’s Ravi, Eddie thinks, but he’s too focused on what’s in front of him, the way the gold scales turn into pale skin. The gills on their neck fade, the scales on their cheek, on their torso, seem to bury themselves into their body.
Sitting beside Eddie is a man, who looks absolutely nothing like he had just a minute ago. Feminine curves and the slant of breasts dissolve into a flat chest and lean, narrow hips. Their round face sharpens around an angular jaw. All of this happens faster than Eddie can process. A hitched breath as he looks between their legs on accident, then averts his gaze immediately with a burning face.
They’re staring down at themself, eyes wide with equal parts fear and awe. Hands raise in front of their face, inspecting them, and Eddie takes the opportunity to remove his turnout and reach out to cover them. They flinch, look up at him. “Sorry,” Eddie says sheepishly.
“Okay.” Bobby stands up. “New plan.” He starts to pace. The movement seems to agitate them, and they eye Bobby nervously as if preparing for a blow. “What’s your name?”
“Evan Buckley.” A whisper. “I go by Buck, though. I-I mean, I-” He cuts off, eyes darting to Eddie. Eddie feels a warmth in his heart. Buck, he thinks. A merman named Buck.
“Nice to meet you, Buck,” Eddie says. He stands too, then holds a hand out. “Can you stand?”
Buck takes Eddie’s hand, using his other hand to pull himself up. His knees are wobbly, and Eddie thinks distantly of a newborn puppy. Eddie wraps a careful arm around his waist to support him, aware of the way Buck’s entire body goes tense, seeming to lock up with fear.
“It’s okay,” Eddie says. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
Buck says nothing. Eddie takes a small step forward, while Buck studies Eddie’s movements carefully. He copies, but stumbles over himself and nearly falls. It would’ve been painful, had Eddie not been right there to catch him.
“Here.” Chimney comes jogging toward them, holding a bundle of clothes in his arms. An extra uniform, it seems. Buck recoils from it, shaking his head. Eddie doesn't want to think about what’s been done to Buck by men in those uniforms, but they don’t have much of a choice.
“We’ll find you something else when we get out of here, okay? Hey.” Eddie, careful to keep a supportive arm around him, tilts his head so that his eyes meet Buck’s. “You’re safe now. I promise. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
The distrust in Buck’s eyes remains palpable, but he still tilts his head in a small nod. Chimney starts to unfold the clothes, and together he and Eddie help Buck figure out how to work his new limbs through the uniform.
Eddie tries not to think about how gorgeous the man in front of him is, somehow just as striking as he had been before.
His feet remain bare, but they can’t do anything about that now. Buck leans into him more, lets Eddie guide him off the catwalk and to the stairs.
The stairs, which prove to be a challenge.
Buck takes a single step and nearly topples down all of them, so Bobby steps in front and takes both of his hands. It's precarious at best; Bobby climbing down the already unsafe stairs backwards, but after several long minutes, they make it to the bottom.
They're met with an unfriendly face when they open the door, the same guard who greeted them at the entrance. Buck flinches back so violently he nearly stumbles and falls, and Eddie tightens his grip on him just a little.
The guard sends a sidelong glance Buck's way, but there's no flash of recognition in his eyes. “Anything I can help you folks with?”
Eddie scrambles for some sort of excuse. Buck's nails are digging almost painfully into his back, but he doesn't let it show on his face. “Found our distress call.” He gestures vaguely towards Buck, and finds mute satisfaction in the fact that it’s not entirely a lie. “Feeling faint and dizzy. We’re gonna take him to the hospital to get checked out. Can never be too careful, right?” He’s talking too much. He knows he’s talking too much, but he can’t stop. “Night shifts, man. They can really get to you. Shift work isn’t for the weak, is it?”
“I don’t recognize you.” The security guard eyes Buck. “You new here?”
Buck has the sense to nod, though his eyes are still filled with terror. “Yeah. Yes. Y-Yes, sir. Sorry.” He closes his mouth, looks at Eddie.
The guard's gaze flashes towards the tank, then back at them. Suspicion, suddenly, in those cold, hollow eyes. Buck makes a noise in the back of his throat, and Eddie hopes he's the only one who can hear it.
“Better safe than sorry.” The guard’s words are soft, as if an echo of a previous thought.
“Exactly,” Eddie says. His thumb rubs circles against Buck’s hip, and he hopes the gesture is at least a little comforting. He hopes that gentle touch is enough to calm his surely racing heart. He hopes his presence makes this whole ordeal at least a little less terrifying.
“Where's that fuckin’ fish.” A statement, not a question. Eddie swallows down his anger, resists the urge to punch this man in the jaw.
“Must be hiding,” he says, flatly.
“Yeah, must be.” A breath, and then. “You gentleman have a good night. I'm going to go deal with…” He gestures vaguely to the tank, then brushes past them up the stairs.
Buck sags in Eddie’s arms, trembling lightly with fear. Eddie thinks of those words, deal with, and tries not to wonder what that means.
“Let's get out of here,” Bobby says, and Eddie is all too eager to follow. He catches Buck's gaze locked on the tank, eyes wide as he takes in this new view of his former prison. The water quality looks worse from this angle, almost impossible to see the back of the enclosure. It’s hard to tell, from out here, how big the tank actually is. But it’s not big, that much is obvious. Eddie can’t imagine going from the entire ocean at your fingertips, to perhaps ten square meters of space as your entire world.
“You're safe,” Eddie says. “I promise.”
Buck says nothing.